It's Always Sunny on Pandora
by Atlasdoo
Summary: (Love on a Place Like Pandora sequel) The vault hunters find themselves alive and breathing after their battle with the Warrior and Jack. The only problem- they've spawned on different planets. It's up to Maya to reunite the vault hunters and find Zero.
1. POLL

Yeah, the story's back, after I kinda killed everyone then put that last bit in the last chapter.

Before you read the chapter, I need you all to do something which will affect the later chapters. Vote in a poll. If the results are tied, or no one votes, I will have to randomize the result. So here's what you're voting for:

You're going to be voting for someone to die. Someone WILL DIE in the end, and you get the chance to choose. Or not, since it depends on the popularity of that option.

Don't worry, it's not an in-game NPC that dies. People like Tannis and Tina will survive this story fo' sure, so you're going to vote to kill **a CEO of a gun manufacturing company**. (E.G. CEO of Vladof, Jakobs, yadda-yadda.)

**These guys are all OCs, so here are their individual profiles and such: **

**Mr Vladof:** Cause too many Russian characters in video games are called Niko or Nikolai (GTAIV, Dead Island etc.) I will have creativity and name him Aleksandr. (I'm a fan of ImmortalHD) Loud, impatient and forceful, he will kill to get his point across, and also similar to his guns, is able to shout things at an abnormally quick speed.

**Sir Jakobs:** Gentlemanly and the complete opposite of Mr Vladof, Sir Jakobs believes that ruthless brawls and impatient shouting are no way to win a battle. The correct way to negotiate, according to him, is to be polite, be respectful, and have a plan to kill everyone he meets. (A cookie for whoever sees the reference.)

**Mr and Mrs Tediore: **The idea for starting a gun manufacturing company struck them when they were small. These twin siblings are extremely similar, and started off with barely any cash and scrap metal from their grandparents' homes. With a little determination and odd means of advertising, they finally made it out there as a successful company. They tend to be a little cheap when it comes to designs though. **(Both twins die if you vote for this)**

**(Dahl won't be appearing for various reasons- one being that Axton used to work with Dahl and I can't find a way to create a character that would fit into his backstory. Maliwan will be a character in the story, and I have decided that she will not die. Torgue and Hyperion have been introduced already, and henceforth, I don't want to kill them. I mean, Jack's dead and Torgue's a cool guy.)**

**VOTE HERE: . ?p=52aec211e4b0169ef69e7385**

**Poll expires when I begin to write the chapter which involves the character's death- which means in a few weeks/a month and a half/five years. **_(If the link doesn't work, tell me in the reviews section)_


	2. Backyards and Bandit tents

**(Sequel to Love on a Place Like Pandora) The vault hunters find themselves alive and breathing after their battle with the Warrior and Jack. The only problem- they've spawned on different planets. It's up to Maya to reunite the vault hunters and find Zero, but she has her own problems- a deranged 14-year old pyromaniac with a vendetta against a rival bandit leader and Lady Maliwan, the slightly over-ambitious, somewhat-deranged-as-well CEO of the Maliwan.**

Axton was dying. It was all very familiar. He could remember a battlefield littered with the corpses of his friends, their smiles wiped off their faces, their eyes wide open and mouths contorted. Bulletholes and knife-marks across their bodies, crows descending to perch on them and peck away at their remains. Pandora didn't have crows, but perhaps the rakks would tear away at his flesh once it was over.

The warrior had ripped his leg to shreds and torn the flesh from his chest. He didn't want to die, but it was a hell of a lot better than being murdered by Jack. The others… They would avenge him. They would make sure his death wasn't for nothing, and he believed in them. As his body shook and a cold wind swept across him, he could barely make out anything anymore, his eyelids growing heavier with every passing second. Gaige's form began to fade and flicker, her sobs almost inaudible, and Maya's comforts were drowned out by a roar of the warrior.

He had lived a good life- filled with love, heartbreak, and an adventure which led up to his dramatic, somewhat anti-climatic death.

"_Kill that motherfucker for me, will you?" _

Heaven looked like a teenager's room. Or hell. Whatever. There wasn't a golden gate or a swimming pool full of attractive, single women. It must be hell, he concluded, to remind him of his teenage days. (Which weren't exactly the best, to be honest.) The blue concrete walls were familiar, but he sure as _hell_ didn't have posters of famous musicians and Maliwan blueprints all over his walls. What he did have was a playboy calender, which he couldn't see anywhere on the walls. Cobwebs covered the corners of the walls, and now that his vision grew clearer, he could tell the room had been neglected for some time. 

A knock at the door caused him to flinch, and almost instantly, he began to put everything together. He'd respawned, only to be picked up by a group of bandits who were holding him hostage in a teenager's room. He shut his eyes, hoping his kidnappers would think he was still unconscious and would leave him alone. 

"Oi. Stop playing dead," Came someone's exasperated sigh. A woman's. He kept his eyes shut. Unfortunately, that didn't go so well, as a sharp jolt of electricity to his palm caused him to let out a small yelp. He backed up into a wall behind him and eyed his kidnapper- a woman with red hair and green eyes. Someone who looked too much like Gaige for his own comfort. 

"Y-You… Gaige?" He whispered, but she heard him.

"Did you just say Gaige?" She asked, dropping the tray in her hands. He nodded hesitantly. "You know her? 18 years old, red hair?"

"I uh… Travelled with her for some time." He replied, before mentally slapping himself for revealing so much information about himself _and possibly _Gaige.

"Is she alright? Is she safe?" The question was like a stab to his heart, her hopeful gaze twisting the blade. The last he'd seen, she'd been bleeding out. What if she was dead, and didn't respawn? He forced his guilt aside and wiped the terrified look off his face. 

"Who are you to want to know all about her?" He spat, pointing accusingly at her. She blinked, her glare sending chills up his spine.

"Her mother."

"Uh… Oh, well that changes everything… But wait a minute, if you're her mother, why are you living on Pandora?" 

"This isn't Pandora."

"Then… How did I respawn here?"

"Pandora isn't the only place with New-U technology, you know." 

"So that means…" 

"Welcome to Eden-5."

Axton trailed behind the lady who was Gaige's mother, biting into the sandwich she had prepared for him. Despite it having landed on the ground, he chose to eat it anyway, since he'd already eaten food with sand all over it while working for Ellie in the Dust. She brought him out to their backyard, which wasn't exactly huge, but was large enough for a treehouse. She must have caught him staring at it, and smiled. 

"It was Gaige's. She loved it when she was younger. Would spend all day sitting up there and reading," She sighed. Gaige, a bookworm? He was never going to stop teasing her for it. Once he found her at least.

In a quiet corner of the backyard was what appeared to be a shack, which looked rather run down and unsafe. She opened the door, letting him inside to take a look around. It had to be Gaige's workshop. There were blueprints all over the walls and one in particular stood out to him- Deathtrap's blueprints. He ran his palm across the surface of her workbench, noticing a few red stains on it.

"So she wasn't lying about the whole 'cut-off-my-arm' thing?" He asked. He didn't actually believe her when she mentioned it. Even he wouldn't dare try such a thing. 

"Sadly, yes. I warned her against it, but the girl had already sawed off her arm before I could convince her otherwise," She laughed, sadness flickering across her eyes for a brief moment.

"Anyway, I didn't bring you in here to show you her workbench. I came to show you…" She took a step back, pulling a curtain aside. "This." Behind the curtain, was a new-u machine. 

"How did this get here?" He walked up to it, noticing how it was offline and broken. How did it manage to let him spawn back in? With Angel dead, none of these should be able to function properly. Must have been a lucky glitch. But were the others as lucky as he was? It was highly unlikely.

"Don't know. The previous owners left it here. We never bothered with this shack until Gaige took an interest in robotics, and decided to use it as her workshop. She found this one day, experimented on it a little, but nothing seemed to turn it back on."

"Oh." He answered, having expected a better response. "Did anyone else spawn?"

"No, just you." She responded, her answer leaving him a little disappointed. What happened to the others? Had Gaige died? Had the others defeated the warrior? One thing was certain- he had to make it back to Pandora. But how? 

She could still feel the effects of the kiss, her heart hammering against her chest, and it was as though she could feel his lips ghosting over hers. The explosion had hurt so much, but she buried her head into his chest as his arms pulled her against him protectively, doing as much as he could to shield them from the blast. Yet, it was not enough. The impact had killed them, crushing their skulls and twisting their necks. If they hadn't died, the fire would've taken care of them. 

But she had been whisked away into the familiar sensation of respawn right after. Once her brain had been pieced back together and her memories restored, she landed on the ground with a thud, coughing and suffering from a horrible headache, the pain ripping through her skull.

She began to pant, curling up into a ball on the ground, as she stared at the new-u station. It was old and looked defective, the hyperion logo peeling off. That must have explained the headache and the pain- it hadn't pieced a few things together quite that well. 

"Zero…" She groaned. Where was he? Why hadn't he spawned? She yearned to bury her head into the warmth of his chest, his comforts letting the pain slip away.

It was just a headache and some slight cramps, and those were sure to go away after a while. But she couldn't just lie on the ground curled up into a ball for a few hours- a wandering bandit could rip her in two if he were to find her there. Where was she anyway? She looked around. It seemed like a tent, and the ground was sandy. Maybe she was in the Dust. Gazing up at the ceiling, as her vision cleared, panic struck her. 

There, on the top of the tent, was the vault symbol, painted with blood. This was a bandit's tent. She was in a bandit camp. 

"G'night, siren." Were the last things she heard before something struck her in the side of her head.

**A/n: Well, the story's back, and sorry about the delay!**


	3. Bakery of Flesh

**a/n: Starting-School happiness-and-lack-of-time, yeah! (Which is no happiness at all and it also means later updates. Well, later than they already are I guess, sorry about that.)**

The stench of drying blood and rotting corpses overcame her senses when she came to, forcing her to bring a hand up to shield her nose from the nauseating smell. She coughed, wheezing into her palm, but it did little to stop the smell from reaching her. Her eyes flew open, and as soon as they did, a rag was wrapped around her mouth. She tried to bring her arms up to untie the rags, but her captor quickly cuffed her to the pole of the New-U station.

Maya began tugging at her handcuffs, before finally giving up, realizing it was pointless.

"Before you start assuming anything, no, I'm not a pervert," Her captor spoke. She looked up to glance at him- no her, judging by the pitch of her voice and the thick ponytail of dark brown hair. She looked not older than sixteen, but was definitely older than Tiny Tina.

"So, Maya, I'm going to take off this rag, and don't scream. I mean, why would you? You're in a damn bandit camp." Maya could hear her smiling underneath the psycho mask she wore. "Okay?"

Maya rolled her eyes and nodded, the bandit untying the rag and letting it fall to the floor. "How do you know my name?" She asked.

"Why would I not? Jack's been talking about you guys all over ECHO and your wanted poster's like… Everywhere," She laughed.

"Fair enough."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're currently in the lounge area of the camp, and we gotta get to my tent. The problem is, we're going to have to walk through the sauna and the bakery to get there, and that means passing by rapists, murderers, thieves, all of those kind of people." There was a pause, and Maya couldn't decide whether she should worry about the bandits or the fact that a bandit camp had a bakery.

"By the way, the bread in the bakery's made of skag flesh." Maya decided she would worry more about the bakery after hearing that. "Back to the point. You're going to need a disguise, and I brought just that!" The girl exclaimed, throwing a marauder's mask at her. The mask had fortunately landed on the ground rather than on her face.

"Put it on, and don't try to run away. Cause it looks like you're missing a few things." Maya glanced at the girl, who was juggling her ECHO device and what looked like the shield Zero had slipped in her back pocket.

There went all the escape plans she was formulating.

Axton felt weird dressing up like a… civilian. He was more used to the thick clothes and bulky haversacks he wore on a daily basis. He even slept with the haversack on and numerous pistols strapped to his waist. Yet, Gaige's father had somehow managed to convince him into leaving his possessions behind, and gave him a plain white shirt and some jeans to don. And so, after an hour of explaining to Axton how the supermarket wasn't a dangerous place with bandits lurking around every aisle, he'd agreed to follow him to get some groceries.

"So, you've never been to a supermarket?" Gaige's father, who went by the name of Aiden, asked as he threw a box of cereal into the cart. "If you don't mind, could you grab those Pandoras from the top shelf?"

"No sir," Axton replied curtly, tiptoeing to grab the cereal which was strangely named Pandoras. He wasn't sure if he should be amused or disappointed with the company's choice of name. On the box was a hilariously exaggerated illustration of a bandit eating from a bowl of cereals shaped like vault symbols.

"I told you, just call me Aiden, damnit," He snapped. Axton could see where Gaige got her temper from. "Gaige used to love Pandoras. Something about the planet, I guess. She'd always talk about vault hunting while eating those."

Gaige eating cereal? Axton was going to tell everyone in Sanctuary about that once he got back to Pandora. _IF _he got back to Pandora. He hadn't actually considered how he'd get back there.

"Gaige. How is she by the way? Or _was _rather." Aiden questioned, scanning the shelves for more groceries. Axton didn't have the heart to tell him his daughter had likely died.

"She's doing alright. Died only a couple of times, knows how to use a gun like a soldier." He replied, hoping the compliment would hide his guilt. Aiden responded with a curt, quick nod, which was followed by silence.

And in the silence, the sounds of chatter around Axton were slowly drowned out by his thoughts. He could see the warrior lunging at him, striking his chest with its tail and ripping out a chunk of flesh in the process. Then there was Gaige, who rushed to his help but didn't see the rakk that decapitated her arm headed her way.

He never felt any guiltier knowing that he'd been the cause of Gaige's death.

Out of all the things she'd done, stopping by a bakery of flesh had to be one of the most disgusting things she'd experienced. Even while wearing the mask, the stench of the blood and decayed corpses could reach her, and twice she felt bile rising in her throat. Thankfully, the girl had led her out of the tent fast enough before she threw up in the mask.

She led her to a throne which sat atop a mountain of bones.

"Nice, isn't it?" She grinned, but Maya's attention was elsewhere. Hanging from a noose above the throne was the corpse of a man, larger than the other bandits and the flesh torn from his face, revealing parts of his skull. But more importantly, around his neck hung a sign with the words "Fucker who killed my sister" written in blood. Maya watched the girl warily. This deranged girl had lost her sister? Could that be the cause of her insanity?

Behind the throne was a tent, which she assumed was the girl's tent. She stepped in after her, before being roughly shoved into a seat.

"So, you clearly want your ECHO device and your broken shield back. I'm a nice person, and I would've returned them to you, had I not needed someone to help me with a certain something." Maya seriously doubted the 'nice' part.

"I'm used to running errands for people. It's in the job description for vault hunting." Maya responded dryly, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"I'm aware of that. Last I heard you caused some trouble for our neighbours the Hodunks."

So she was in the Dust. That information would be of some use to her. If she could find a way to get to Ellie's without this crazy kid noticing, she would have a way back to Sanctuary. And if the other Vault Hunters had spawned, they'd make getting back to the Sanctuary their first priority. And Zero… He'd be there too. He had to be.

"Here's what I propose. I'll take you to the hideout of my lifelong rival, some bitch who thinks she's an assassin and likes sneaking in here and killing out baker every now and then. You know, the normal _we've been rivals since our birth, and we've been destined to fight each other for an eternity _kinda stuff. Except, ya know, screw destiny, I just wanna kill her."

If Maya was going to leave this place behind, she was going to have to help this girl out. And much to her reluctance, she agreed.

And meanwhile, some place really far away, Zer0 woke to the sounds of birds chirping and the voices of a choir.


	4. Corridor Tales

**Chapter 3: #Corridor Story**

**A/n: Nothing much for author's note so just responses to reviews.**

**Metimesthree: **I didn't realise how poorly separated the POVs were that last chapter until you told me :O. Thanks, gonna make sure that doesn't happen again. Usually I separate them with a center-aligned '*'. Thanks again for the reminder.

**Amorgan6704: **Well uh... I'm honestly not sure how to respond to that so I'm gonna stick to school since I'm too young to get a job lol.

**Anon: **Thanks, anon! If it's one thing people _sure do love_ it's a cliffhanger.

**MaxZer0Always: **Glad to know I helped you out with your stress stuff. :D Love your stories too xD

**Sunshine Muncher: **Thanks, Yeah I'll admit I was slacking a little before planning the sequel :L

**Chapter Summary: **_Zero finds himself spawned in an odd location, but he soon finds it might be even more dangerous than he expected. Meanwhile, Maya and her deranged captor embark on their mission to kill some person, while dealing with surprisingly minimal threats._

Were there choirs on Pandora? He doubted it. No one was stupid enough to stand around singing all day on a bandit-infested planet. To make matters worse, his damned helmet was not working. Must have been the impact and the damage his body had taken when Maya killed the Warrior. Speaking of Maya, he could not see any sign of anyone else spawning here. And- oh god she had kissed him. Right there, he was willing to give up the whole cold, lone wolf image he had developed over the years all for her, but then the warrior literally blew up from the force of Maya's Phase Lock, and he found himself being swept off his feet. He reached out and pulled Maya towards him, keeping her pressed against his body, hoping that she would live through this. And if there was some sort of miracle, maybe he could too.

But the metal shrapnel that had lodged itself into his neck had swiftly ended what he thought was his last life and he found himself hoping she had not suffered the same fate. She might not have been so lucky as to get through respawn as he did, which was miraculous. How many functioning respawn stations were there on Pandora? Never mind. He had better things to do rather than to sit around asking questions he had no answers to. Still hopeful, he decided to answer the questions that clouded his mind on his own. His HUD was gone, and his minimap absent, making it hard for him to read the environment and pinpoint his exact location. Normally, he would pick out specific contour lines and remember the formation of rocks and ravines, memorising them and other landmarks. Without his ECHO, he would have to observe his surroundings the old fashioned way.

He stared at the ground around him- not sand or ice, like most of Pandora was covered with. That allowed him to eliminate a few options like the Fridge or the Dust- Which was good, since he would rather not have to endure the cold, relentless blizzards of Pandora's Tundra or deal with sunburns. He had respawned on grass- but not dying grass. The grass he stood on was a vibrant, rich green, as though someone had tended to it recently. He did not know of any gardeners on Pandora or anyone who had the privilege of having a yard to himself or herself. Either someone had wasted hours of their time watering the grass all day, or it rained here. He had seen blizzards, sandstorms, but never rain. In fact, he could distinctly recall Tannis telling them of Pandora's interesting climate, for it was one of the few planets that did not rain, hence explaining its mostly dead terrain. The Highlands maybe? That was a more likely explanation.

He looked around him instead. He was not in a field, so it was likely he was in a more confined area in the Highlands. Maybe he was in a crevasse somewhere or beneath a road. yet, he was not. The walls around him were not stone, but instead, concrete. It was a building. When he looked up, there was not a road, but instead, he found himself gazing up into the sun, and it was so bright that it literally scorched his eyes, forcing him to rip off the helmet to place his hands over his eyelids, rubbing them till his eyes reddened. That helmet wasn't working, anyway. He could simply leave it there. He turned back to look at the respawn station, which looked as abandoned as ever. It had rusted, but it didn't seem fully abandoned. Something was off about it. Next to it was a tree- likely an oak, he concluded, given the texture of its bark. Its leaves were falling off, some getting caught in the sunlight, creating an eerily beautiful sight of leaves falling to the ground. He'd never seen anything like it. Occasionally, a few would land on the respawn station, and come to rest atop its edges. And then he realized what was off. If it had been permanently abandoned and forgotten by the inhabitants of this odd place, there would be more leaves on it. It would probably be buried by leaves by now, had it been a month since someone had visited it. Someone must have been tending to this place.

What stood out the most was the arch of leaves and vines over it. Almost as though someone had worshipped this respawn station. Maybe it was a wedding arch? Maybe this was once the site for a wedding? He wouldn't blame the bride and groom. Despite the lack of space which would probably frighten claustrophobic guests, this was a rather serene place for a wedding. He wished he could have more time like this. Peace. Quiet.

But however, he decided he would never truly be happy if he was alone. Back on Eden, he'd always felt lonely. But upon his arrival to Pandora, he found his problem remedied. He liked being with the other vault hunters. With them, he was truly happy. But most importantly, he was happiest with Maya. Call it favouritism, but it was the truth. So he picked himself up, and headed to what seemed to be the exit to this small haven. That was a suitable name, fitting for a place this safe. In the future, he would refer to this as Haven- His personal sanctuary.

Wow, he'd just set foot on this strange place and he'd already claimed it for himself.

He was headed down a corridor. A rather dark one, he realized. While Haven had been bright and heavenly, this in comparison was a great contrast. Someone really needed to light this hallway up. Every now and then, he'd glance at his feet and hope he'd not trip on something. He nearly collided with a wall after staring at the ground for too long. It was hard to figure out if he even had feet at this point, as he wasn't actually fond of being completely in the dark, which was odd for an assassin. True, the shadows were his friend in most contracts, as he often used them as a cloak to hide from unsuspecting prey, but he'd used the night vision feature in his helmet. He found training one's eyes to see perfectly in the dark silly and cliched, in other words, a rather embarrassing waste of time. Who had the time to sit around in the dark all day trying to make out shapes and figures anyway? Well certainly not him, as he'd rather make money than sit around for hours trying to acquire night vision. When he looked up, he came face to face with a wall. Not a dead end, much to his relief, for it would be a waste to build a useless corridor.

The corridor took a turn to the right, and Zero's initial reaction to this building's odd layout was to criticise the poor architecture and planning. Fortunately, the light at the end of this corridor revealed a couple of doors, with a red one at the end of it. He assumed that this one had to be the exit and cautiously made his way past the doors, twisting the doorknob to the red door. It didn't budge the first time, but a few light shoves took care of it. But instead of being greeted with the vast green fields of the Highlands, he found himself in what looked like an old bedroom, with cobwebs on the ceiling and a few ants crawling across an empty bed frame.

There was a closet with several coats, shirts, hats and jeans hanging. This would be of use to him. People would very easily tell it was him even without the helmet, since he was wearing his suit which wasn't exactly subtle. Sighing, he threw on a pair of jeans, a beret, a blue shirt and a grey coat, with his suit under it. If someone were to shoot at him for no good reason, his suit should be able to withstand quite a few shots before tearing, giving him ample time to escape. Thankfully, his katana was still with him, and he pulled the bottom of his shirt down to conceal its hilt.

Zero found his disguise appropriate, despite how much he hated that beret, but he managed to pull it down a bit to the point where it concealed his eyes. He didn't know how they happened to be coloured so strangely, and neither was he sure if it was natural or artificial. It was more likely that it was artificial though, since he could recall being in a lab at one point in his life, cooped up in a cage all day and having needles poked into him like a literal lab rat. He didn't know where those memories came from, and he was also, too afraid to find out, so he tried not to think about it too often.

The window in the room was unfortunately, boarded up, and from the gaps he could make out a garden. He'd considered climbing over the fence in the garden, only to find that the scenery was merely a holograph. Whoever lived here had been staring at a screen, under the impression it was all really there. The thought was rather depressing, to be honest. He left the bedroom, turning his attention to the other four doors in the hallway. The first was locked, but he managed to get rid of it by kicking it open, only to reveal a bathroom with no windows. The other two doors led to empty rooms with ant trails and nests, but the last one led to another corridor, which was actually lit, except the door at the end of this corridor was made of stained glass framed by white wood.

As he made his way down this corridor, he found the choir getting louder, and the only logical explanation for that was that they were right behind this door. He rested his palm on the doorknob for a second, considering the dangers of revealing himself to the choir. They would either help him or attack him. In fear of the latter occurring, he kept his other hand on his hip, close enough to the hilt of his katana for him to retrieve and unsheathe it before anyone could pull out a weapon of sorts.

He let out an inaudible sigh, before twisting the doorknob and stepping out of the corridor. Instead of a group of people however, there was only an old woman and a radio. What seemed to be the religious singing from before was all just coming from that radio, but what was weirder was the woman. She had her back turned to him, and was… Conducting the choir (which was a radio sitting on a stool).

All of a sudden, the music stopped, and she turned to face him.

"Goodness me, child. You've interrupted us!" She began, a frail smile on her face. Well, didn't look like she'd be attacking him anytime soon. He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Sorry…" He mumbled. How long had it been since he'd spoken? Not counting his encounter with the Engineer back in Opportunity, it must have been years.

"Where am-" He paused mid-sentence, realising he'd constructed a haiku in his head and was about to say it. Without the mask, it would seem odd.

"Um… Where am I?" He asked, trying to sound as casual as it could, but it was weird, not having spoken for a few years.

"Why, you're in the church of the Impending Storm, my child. Home of the order. A place of justice. The heart of Athenas."

The girl had brought Maya to a nearby Catch-A-Ride and made her drive. When asked why she didn't want to drive, the girl simply responded,"I'm not too good with vehicles." Maya had seriously considered driving over to a bandit camp somewhere, crashing into a tent and running the hell out of there, hoping the girl would be gunned down. The only problem was that the girl kept a gun to her head at all times, and was reading directions out on a map to her. They had driven out into the Dust at this point, and Maya's hands were starting to ache.

"Ah, shit, the map's malfunctioning. It's like someone's jamming my ECHO or something." The girl groaned, pointing at something above her brow, which was where Maya assumed her minimap was. "We gotta get like… Proper directions now. Come on, let's head on over to Ellie's." The girl suggested.

"Wait… Ellie's?" Maya asked, sounding quite surprised. She didn't think Ellie associated with bandits.

"Yeah, Ellie's. You know, fat chick with the garage?" The girl responded rudely, pointing over to Ellie's garage which was further out in the distance. Well, this girl was as stupid as she looked. Escaping from her would be easy. Ellie would for sure help her get rid of this somewhat annoying girl.

"Okay, sure." Maya replied, sounding a little too excited in the process. The girl glanced at her for a moment, having noticed her excitement, before shrugging it off and leaning back into her chair.

This girl was so dead.

Athenas. Fantastic. Zero didn't know how he even made it here. For now, he would have to entertain this old lady.

"Child, you have been chosen by the goddess. She has chosen for you to be reborn, for you to be cleansed." The lady gestured to the really freakishly huge stained glass windows behind her. Zero had to squint to see it, but he finally made out the shapes. And on the stained glass, was Maya, her hair long enough to reach the ground, wearing purple robes.

"Maya?" Zero asked, not sure what to make out of this situation.

"Oh dear, the goddess has not only given you the gift of a second life, but she has chosen to bless you with her name? Why… Child, this is a sign. She has chosen you." Zero wasn't exactly surprised, I mean she did in fact choose him over a maniacal psycho, a depressed soldier and a Pandoran midget, which was quite flattering and very strange for him, but he guessed she was referring to something else.

"She has chosen you… For-" She was cut off when someone threw the main doors to the church open. In strode a man with black robes and pale white hair._ (If you need visualization, picture Frollo from the Hunchback, Disney edition.) _

"Bethel, that man is no angel."

"But Brother Ius-!"

"Silence, Bethel! He is not an angel! He is but an unholy monster! A bane to our goddess' existence!"

Brother Ius turned his attention to Zero, who was resting his hand on his hilt at this point, ready to unsheathe it and slice this man's neck.

"Well, well, well. I expected you to return some day, being the one our Goddess cared for the most. It was only logical that out of all people, she'd choose you to be reborn."

And Zero pulled his katana out, thrusting it into Brother Ius' chest, before twisting it, scowling at the elder man. He had no idea what this man was talking about, but he wasn't going to listen to any more of it.

Before Zero could make out what was happening next, Bethel had let out a blood curling scream, and he found himself crashing through the stained glass, out into the Streets of Athenas.

**This went through like 5 rounds of editing. Also corridors. **


End file.
